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UAE: 99% of population are active internet users, highest globally

The country has 10 million active social media accounts, 105.5 per cent compared to the population

Active internet users make up 99 per cent of the total population in the UAE, the highest percentage globally, according to a report.

The Digital UAE - Factsheet report, released by the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), highlights features of digital life, and performance indicators of the UAE's digital transformation.

The report included a set of facts and figures that show the breadth of the digital map, in line with TDRA's digital transformation strategy, the nature of life in the UAE community in all its public and private segments, and individuals.

According to the report, internet uses are diverse, ranging from social networking, work, and searching for information to learning, entertainment, and shopping. Download speeds on smartphones, according to the report, reached 161.15 MbPS, up by more than 2.3 per cent yearly, while fixed internet download speeds reached 207.41 MbPS, with a marked increase in rate, which is very high as compared to previous years.

Majed Sultan Al Mesmar, TDRA's Director-General, said: "The report reflects the digital landscape in the UAE overall and in particular the high level of adopting digital solutions whether in everyday life or government/public services. If anything, this shows the digital maturity level of users and service providers alike, making the UAE a digital environment conducive to leapfrogging towards more excellence."

Al Mesmar added: "We are forging ahead according to Vision 'We the UAE 2031' and the directives of our wise leadership to keep digital transformation as an indispensable choice and an economic necessity in light of rapid changes in the world. In this context, we stress that our successes in all initiatives result from a collective effort of all government entities that have operated and continue to operate under the principle of partnership and'one national team'. So, we are confident that the reports will show continued progress in all relevant tracks."

The report sheds light on the performance of the Unified Digital Platform of the UAE government (U.ae), the government's digital presence interface, and the go-to platform for all public information and services delivered by UAE governmental entities. As per the report, there were 19 million visitors to U.ae, with a record of 30 million visits through 2022. The unified portal includes 221 governmental entities providing 2,630 digital services. At the same time, the happiness index of visitors to U.ae was about 90 per cent, reflecting the success of the portal in fulfilling its role as a leading digital interface locally and globally.

The country's Unified Digital Platform witnessed an important development this year; it was enhanced with a search feature supported by generative artificial intelligence (AI). This led to a quantum leap in the speed, accuracy and exclusivity of search results. As a result, in the first month since the search feature was launched, the portal witnessed 60,000 searches, and a satisfaction rate of 98.5 per cent.

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On the other hand, the digital identity app (UAE Pass) achieved remarkable progress, with the number of registered users reaching 5 million, availing nearly 15,000 electronic services, according to the report.

The UAE's top-level domain ".ae" also showed an increase in adoption, as the number of websites registered in the UAE domain exceeded 300,000.

In 2022 alone, more than 46,000 domains were registered, showing an increase of 20 per cent over the previous year. In this context, the report included figures on the TDRA's "Name Idea" service, which uses generative AI algorithms to choose suitable domain names for commercial activities. The report showed an increased demand for this service by 65 per cent in May, one month after the launch of the service.

As for social media, the report counted up to 10 million active accounts in the UAE, where the percentage of accounts was 105.5 per cent compared to the population and 106.6 per cent compared to the number of internet users—time spent on social media averaged 2.33 hours. daily. The total number of app downloads reached 569 million, a year-on-year surge of 16.4 per cent. Meanwhile, the value of spending on app purchases to Dh1.587 billion, accounting for an increase of 25.3 per cent in the volume of the expenditure on apps.